Catch copying case, get `21,000 reward

Gurdaspur: At a time when the menace of mass copying prevails over the entire country, Baba Aaya Singh Riarki Girls School in Gurdaspur district is free from this malpractice as its students do not believe in copying during the examinations.

In a unique move, the students of the school have collected Rs 21,000 to reward anyone who catches any student copying in the examinations. However, GNDU and PSEB have not bothered to deploy a full staff for the annual examinations. Only a superintendent, an invigilator and a clerk have been deployed on duty, but the irony is that the students have taken up the task to perform the duty in the centre.

Staff deployed for such examination duty are duly satisfied with the behaviour of the students as the students distribute the answer sheets before the commencing the paper and distribute the question papers also. Students do not write a word before the commencement of the examination and upon finishing of time allocated. There is also pin-drop silence in the examination hall. During an examination, doors of the examination centre remain open, and anybody from outside can check the examination centre.

The students who have collected the money have displayed it in a corner of the examination centre, but no one has neither caught anybody copying nor managed to get the reward money.

Principal Swaran Singh Virk, who was also a student of the school, said that college charges Rs 6,500 annually, which is the ‘real expenditure’ incurred on the hostelers, but they are imparting free education to day-boarders.

Emphasising the character-building of girl students, principal Virk said, “We haven’t made education a trade and impart basic and real education and try to make students face the grim realities of outer world.”

The students sweep their classroom and make food for hostelers as well. He stated that there is no discrimination on the basis of caste, race and religion as the college celebrates festivals of all religions and students of all walks of life participate in it. Being a Sikh-populated area, the students from Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities also studying here and they have liberty to perform their religious rituals in the college independently, he added.